The morning was like any other. The only difference a lack of sunlight likely caused by the fact we were at least a hundred metres beneath the surface. Alex greeted me, lazily yawning. She rubbed her eyes even though I doubted there was anything sticking to them she had to remove. Likely a remainder of once being human. Just like my nodding.
Despite her projected laziness and composure, I could see the tension in her movements. Tension I could not help but feel myself. The world might end in a few decades and today we would learn why.
“Good morning”, Catori was the first to break the silence. Of course, Alex did not hear her.
“Good morning”, I answered out loud.
The living fortress nodded stiffly.
“Any idea what’s going to happen today?”, she asked.
“Nope. Nothing concrete, at least.”
“Then let’s just be prepared for the worst.”
“Yes, be careful”, Catori sends.
A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. Alex called out and Kiara came in carrying a tray with simple but nutritious food. Dried meat, bread, cheese, an apple and a hard-boiled egg as well as some tea. There was a pile of raw meat as well.
“I got your breakfast”, she said, “Ugark told me you eat raw meat, Fio?”
I nodded.
We thanked her and started eating. She silently watched us. It was not fully uncomfortable. Before we finished, old man Cleric came in. He stood still with his hands crossed in front of his hips.
Soon, Alex was done with her food. She wiped at her lips and I noticed her face contorting too little. She already hardened her body to be less easily harmed.
“Anything you can tell us, old man?”, she asked.
He shook his head.
“Not yet. I am sure you will have questions. I will answer them once we return. For now, be careful. If you fall, you are lost.”
We shared a glance.
I sighed.
“Let’s go, then.”
We left the room following the Cleric away from the Crimson Heart. Kiara stayed behind. There was another door in the tunnel. Just to its left, a slope came down, likely for moving supplies. The old man fiddled with his robes before he took out a clearly thaumaturgical artefact that looked much like a miniature version of the Crimson Heart. It had tiny vis crystals in its six points. This time, they were not the primal aspects. Instead there were alienis, vacuos, lucrum, fames, auram, and perditio. Eldritch, void, greed, hunger, aura, and destruction. A sense of foreboding filled me.
The door responded to the key and swung open. We walked through into a perfectly dark tunnel. The old man picked up a vis lantern hanging off the side. With a short burst of vis from his fingers, the crystal lit up. Moments later we were moving again, the doors closing behind us automatically.
“What are you thinking, Fio?”, Alex asked me telepathically.
“I’m thinking a lot of things right now. Those aspects are very close to the other part of my storage Skill. And…”
“Yep. If this is what I think it is, we might just be fucked.”
“We were looking for a solution and only found a bigger problem…”, I complained.
“Maybe it’s not as bad?”, Catori asked.
Alex turned to me and blinked.
“Oh, that was Catori.”
“Yup”, the girl in my head said, “We can definitely do something, right?”
Alex shook her head.
“I have no idea…”
We fell into silence for a while. Our steps echoed in the bare tunnel. There was very little of interest going on. Simply naked stone and silence. After an hour, I hopped on Alex’s arm and let her carry me. Her skin was perfectly solid and had not the slightest give.
“You should relax a little”, I said.
“Easy for you to say”, she snorted.
The old man glanced at her.
“Is something the matter?”, he asked.
“N… Yes. It’s a node, right?”
His steps faltered. Then he continued walking like nothing happened.
“You are perceptive. But you would not ask if you already knew.”
“We have a problem with a node as well. A hungry node popped up not far from the dwarven-ork border. Fio and I originally set out on this journey to find a way to deal with it.”
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The Cleric’s steps slowed and he put a hand to his chin.
“How large is it?”
“It’s eaten an area of over a hundred metres diameter with the initial burst. There was a goblin [Thaumaturge] using it for the village that stood around it.”
“I see. That might be…”
He kept mumbling to himself. I could hear his words and yet they made no sense. He was most likely just keeping his mouth moving to activate his brain.
“What might be?”, Alex asked eventually.
“Oh. I will tell you later. Come, we have a long way to go.”
With that, silence returned, only interrupted by our steps. Alex turned to look at me and rolled her eyes.
“What a waste”, she sent.
“Truth doesn’t want to tell, either”, Catori said, “I think he finds it funny.”
“That sounds like him”, I huffed.
We kept walking. Or, Alex and the old man did. Despite the insane distance, he never asked for a break, nor offered one. I noticed some vis that cycled through his limbs every once in a while. Maybe he had an Affinity for victus or sano.
Eventually, the Cleric stopped and turned around.
“It is only a few more minutes. From here, every step is dangerous. If you hear the stone crack, run back up the tunnel. If I tell you to run, run back up the tunnel. Do not ask questions. Do not stop until I tell you to. Do you understand?”
I nodded. Alex hesitated a moment. She took a deep breath, then looked at me.
“You go ahead. I’m gonna turn back into flesh. That’ll make me lighter.”
I stood and waited for her. She smiled wryly. As the minutes passed, I noticed her face slackening. The pull of gravity reasserted itself on her skin. Then, she nodded.
“I’m ready.”
The Cleric nodded and returned to walking.
“Slow steps”, he said, “And make sure you are never synchronized with the others.”
We walked.
Tip. Click. Tap.
Tip. Click. Tap.
Tip. Click. Tap.
On and on. There was another turn. Then, we looked at a lit-up tunnel. Maybe two hundred metres ahead, something shone in from below. There was a gap in the ground. Silently, the Cleric motioned for us to follow him.
Tip. Click. Tap.
Tip. Click. Tap.
Tip. Click. Tap.
Tip. Creak. Tap.
We were about halfway down the tunnel when it happened. At first, it was barely noticeable. But my ears heard it, of course.
Tip. Click. Creak.
The second time was louder. The Cleric held up a hand and we stopped.
Crreaak.
“Oh, no”, he whispered.
“Turn around and walk slow…”
CRRRREEAAAK.
He took off. Alex crouched and jumped. It could have been a mistake but it catapulted her right to the wall of the bend. And it made the noise much louder.
CCRKKRKRAAK.
I looked at the noise. There was a huge crack in the wall and the ceiling was… going up? Why? We were in a cave. Then it clicked. The ground was starting to fall. I watched Alex look back before she pushed off the wall and shot up the tunnel we came from.
“FLY, FIO!”, she shouted in my head.
The Cleric was already turning around the bend as I lazily spread my wings. What I had not expected was the drag.
As the ground fell out below me, not only light rushed in through the sudden gaps. There was also a storm of wind pushing me down.
“Shift!”, Catori shouted.
I extended a tendril of darkness just reaching the wall. [Eldritch Shift] activated and for a moment the light turned blinding. Then I was perched on the wall, my wings spread so the winds would hold me against it. I started to activate the Skill again and within seconds my body was metal and glass. My talons dug into the wall and I pulled in my wings. Only centimetres below my feet, there was nothing.
I turned my head. And quickly had to close my eyes. This glare, was it the sun?
I tried again, eyelid by eyelid. It was much more manageable, especially once I turned off my magical senses. Bit by bit, an incredible sight opened up in front of me. Or rather, below me.
The first thing I saw was the searing light. A near-white orb in the centre of my vision, the falling rocks already swallowed by the glare. Only a small dot of the cave’s floor was still visible below. Then I saw what was behind it. No, around it. More stone. And earth. And… was that water? And stars behind them.
There were plates of ginormous dimensions. Gaps in between showed what was clearly a night sky. A few lines of sunlight showed on the opposite end. This was… the planet’s inside. Or what was left of it.
A hungry node was eating the planet from the inside.
No. Fucking. Way.
There were oceans floating in between some islands. No, continents. Was the ocean south of the Dwarven Hills also directly above this open pit? And how was it not all collapsing? Would gravity not draw in the remains of the planet?
I turned my body and looked out below the former cave wall. In front of me was a jagged upside-down cliff-scape harsher than the remains of the star shard’s creation. There was a bend, no, a buckle a few… hundred kilometres?… in front. The continent we were on was cracked. I saw droplets of water even further out falling. There was an open ocean. It might even be south.
I gazed for a little longer when I heard Alex's voice.
“Fioo!! Are you there?”
“We’re still connected”, I answered telepathically.
“Right.”
A wave of confusion and relief accompanied her words.
“I’m flying back now. Did you see this?”
“Yes. The edge here looks stable.”
“… ck you. ARRGH!”, Catori said, “Sorry, just annoyed at our resident ‘knowledge’ guy.”
“… what?”, Alex asked.
“Truth won’t say a thing about how to fix this. He says, if we die here, we’re gonna still be alive in the Empty. He doesn’t see a reason to help.”
“The fuck…”, I heard Alex mutter as I round the former corner of the tunnel.
The Cleric stood there, his hands shaking.
“I apologize”, he said, “For putting you in danger. But I hope you understand that this is better seen than told.”
Alex giggled.
“You’re fucking insane. And we’re supposed to be the incredibly warped idiots, here.”
I landed on her shoulder and pecked at his masked.
“A little more information ahead of time would have been great. I heard the cracks a few seconds before you. I could have warned you earlier if I knew what was happening.”
“Oh…”, he said.
“Yes. Oh.”
“Well, if it is of any help, it is incredibly unlikely for more of the tunnel to collapse within the next month.”
“Don’t jinx it, old man”, Alex snarled.
He nodded.
“We can talk on the way back up. There… is much to discuss.”
“There is…”, I said, “Like… what you’re planning to do about the fucking hungry node eating the planet.”
The Cleric sighed.
“Sadly, we do not know how to prevent that. Yet.”
Alex groaned.